Quentin L. Messer Jr.

People to Watch Class of 2015

President & CEO, New Orleans Business Alliance

Quentin Messer’s mind goes straight to Jerry Garcia when he thinks about how he got to his current professional position.

“I has been a long strange trip professionally,” Messer says. “As I reflect on the threads of my disparate professional experiences, I realize that I’m energized by people and that I believe each of us is called to be a change agent, an encourager, a cheerleader.”

Messer sees his role at the New Orleans Business Alliance as a way to celebrate the successes of a wide cross section of the city’s citizens while telling the story that our city is a unique place where you can work and play hard.

“New Orleanians are justifiably proud of the city, and the Business Alliance is similarly proud, particularly of the city’s business community,” he says.
“Especially since Katrina, our business community has been persistent in its investment in a New Orleans that creates more on­ramps to opportunity to all its citizens.”

Messer says he loves to represent the approximately 375,000 citizens of New Orleans against the 5 million residents of cities like Atlanta or Houston and bet on us to win every time.

“I’ll take a passionate few over traffic jam fatigued millions any day,” he says.